Many different types of crowd disturbance have bubbled up during 2011, but perhaps the oddest category has been the “flash mob robbery,” or “flash rob.”
It’s a fad that started in Washington, D.C. back in April, when around 20 people filed into a high-end jeans store in Dupont Circle and quickly made off with $20,000 in stock. Since then, the practice has spread — Dallas, Las Vegas, Ottawa, and Upper Darby, Pa. have all reported incidents since then — though the targets have gotten a bit more downscale, with most of the thefts taking place in convenience stores.
The latest crowd theft took place Saturday night at a 7-Eleven in Silver Spring, Md., and it fit the familiar pattern. Kids pour into the store, calmly help themselves to merchandise, and then stream out again.
Read more at Wired
Saturday, November 26
Tuesday, November 22
Redefining Public Relations in the Age of Social Media
The industry’s largest organization, the Public Relations Society of America, is embarking on an effort to develop a better definition of “public relations,” one more appropriate for the 21st century. The effort is being spurred by the profound changes in public relations since the last time the organization updated its definition, in 1982.
Attempts to write new definitions in 2003 and 2007 did not move forward, leaving in place this vague definition: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” Perhaps the most significant changes have occurred most recently, as the Internet and social media like blogs, Facebook and Twitter have transformed the relationship between the members of the public and those communicating with them.
Read more from the New York Times
Attempts to write new definitions in 2003 and 2007 did not move forward, leaving in place this vague definition: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” Perhaps the most significant changes have occurred most recently, as the Internet and social media like blogs, Facebook and Twitter have transformed the relationship between the members of the public and those communicating with them.
Read more from the New York Times
Sunday, November 20
Radio Revs Edge Up Again
The radio business is continuing its gradual recovery, with total spending increasing 2% from $4.44 billion in the third quarter of 2010 to $4.53 billion in the third quarter of 2011, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau. For the first nine months of 2011 revenue is also up 2% to $12.89 billion. The RAB attributed the overall growth to increases in network, digital, and off-air spending.
Read more here
Read more here
Social Media: Weak on Customer Loyalty
A new study from Pitney Bowes found social media to be one of the least effective engagement techniques for encouraging customer loyalty for larger and small businesses alike.
The survey found that just 18% of the respondents believed that interaction with a larger company or its brands on social media would encourage them to buy from that business again. The social media approach was deemed even less effective for smaller businesses, where just 15% of those responding said it would encourage their loyalty to a company.
"..sophisticated social media and Web interaction can be time-consuming and expensive and outcomes are difficult to measure."
Read more here
The survey found that just 18% of the respondents believed that interaction with a larger company or its brands on social media would encourage them to buy from that business again. The social media approach was deemed even less effective for smaller businesses, where just 15% of those responding said it would encourage their loyalty to a company.
"..sophisticated social media and Web interaction can be time-consuming and expensive and outcomes are difficult to measure."
Read more here
What Happens When Journalism Is Everywhere?
Are citizen reporters who use social media a threat to normal news sources? Should journalists be licensed? What happens to freedom of the press?
One of the things the NYC police have been trying to do to keep a lid on the (Occupy Wall Street) protests is corral and/or exclude journalists from certain areas—and in many cases even arrest them—and then argue that only “registered” journalists are allowed to move freely (in an Orwellian move, the New York police restricted them to what they called “Free Speech Zones”).
one college student created a summary of the event that got tens of thousands of views in a matter of hours and was embedded by the Washington Post. Does that make him a journalist? Of course it does—in exactly the same way that Pakistani programmer Sohaib Athar became a journalist by live-tweeting the raid on Osama bin Laden, something NPR digital editor Andy Carvin described as a “random act of journalism.”
So what does the world look like when journalism is everywhere? We are beginning to find out. And while it may be a frightening prospect if you are a traditional media company, there is a lot to be optimistic about if you are just interested in the news. A world where everyone is a journalist may be a bit more chaotic and a bit more complicated than the one we are used to, but it will also be a bit freer, and that is clearly a good thing.
Read more at Business Week
One of the things the NYC police have been trying to do to keep a lid on the (Occupy Wall Street) protests is corral and/or exclude journalists from certain areas—and in many cases even arrest them—and then argue that only “registered” journalists are allowed to move freely (in an Orwellian move, the New York police restricted them to what they called “Free Speech Zones”).
one college student created a summary of the event that got tens of thousands of views in a matter of hours and was embedded by the Washington Post. Does that make him a journalist? Of course it does—in exactly the same way that Pakistani programmer Sohaib Athar became a journalist by live-tweeting the raid on Osama bin Laden, something NPR digital editor Andy Carvin described as a “random act of journalism.”
So what does the world look like when journalism is everywhere? We are beginning to find out. And while it may be a frightening prospect if you are a traditional media company, there is a lot to be optimistic about if you are just interested in the news. A world where everyone is a journalist may be a bit more chaotic and a bit more complicated than the one we are used to, but it will also be a bit freer, and that is clearly a good thing.
Read more at Business Week
Drone Journalism Arrives
Now that cellphone cameras have turned every protester with a Twitter account or a YouTube channel into a potential multimedia journalist, police officers in several American cities appear to be having trouble distinguishing between activists and reporters.
Two days ago, as police officers raided the Occupy Wall Street protest camp, several reporters were arrested and many more were denied access to the site. At the same location on Thursday, my colleague Colin Moynihan reported, “Several officers could be seen shoving and punching protesters and journalists” alike.
All of which makes it a good time to report that a Polish firm called RoboKopter scored something of a coup last week when it demonstrated that its miniature flying drone was capable of recording spectacular aerial views of a chaotic protest in Warsaw.
Read more at the New York Times
Two days ago, as police officers raided the Occupy Wall Street protest camp, several reporters were arrested and many more were denied access to the site. At the same location on Thursday, my colleague Colin Moynihan reported, “Several officers could be seen shoving and punching protesters and journalists” alike.
All of which makes it a good time to report that a Polish firm called RoboKopter scored something of a coup last week when it demonstrated that its miniature flying drone was capable of recording spectacular aerial views of a chaotic protest in Warsaw.
Read more at the New York Times
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